Last night I almost didn't attend an alcohol study because I lingered too long at a liquor store and traffic/roads were way worse than I expected. The study was scheduled to start at six, although we were supposed to be there fifteen minutes before that to check in. When it was 6:00 and I'd gotten myself totally lost trying to bypass a closed freeway entrance ramp, I was ready to turn around and go home. As luck would have it, the first road I recognized was one that brought me the rest of the way to Fieldwork Mpls and free beer. I was a half hour late, but they'd just started the session.

There were twenty other men participating in the study and we sat in rows in what reminded me of a college classroom (except with one-way glass along the front wall). We were instructed not to talk to each other in order to preserve our unbiased opinions of the samples. We filled out some bubble sheets and then the first beers were brought in. We were to drink our sample and answer a few pages of questions about it. They involved rating the beer on things like taste, body, malt, smoothness, and overall impressions. The most funny category was (agree or disagree:) "is a chick beer." I had to strongly disagree with "tastes premium or upscale"--Chimay has ruined me on regular beers.

We returned our (mostly) empty cups and repeated the process with a second sample. The whole process took about an hour. Then came the fun part. Along with extra paperwork, we each got a grocery bag packed with two six-packs to take home! Not only do I have twelve bottles of free beer sitting in my fridge (well, eleven now), but if I complete that survey and return it next week, they will pay me $65! Awesome. I would have signed up if it was just the free beer!